Ireland

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Transcript of Ireland

Ireland Saint Patrick's Day Irish Language Famous Irish People History of Ireland Sights from Ireland Literature of Ireland Gary Moore Van Morrison Jonathan Rhys Meyers AnneSullivan An Old Irish Family Map Today, Ireland is a country with a bright future. In 2005, “Economist” magazine selected it as the best place in the world to live. Ireland was first settled around the year 8000 BC, when hunter-gatherers came from Great Britain and Europe, possibly by land bridge. They lived by hunting and fishing for about four thousand years. Early Irish society was organized into a number of kingdoms, with a rich culture and a learned upper class. Irish society was pagan for thousands of years. This changed in the early fifth century AD, when Christian missionaries, including the legendary St. Patrick, arrived. Christianity replaced the old pagan religions by the year 600. Two centuries later, from the early ninth century AD, Vikings invaded Ireland. These attacks went on for over 100 years. At first the Vikings raided monasteries and villages. Eventually, they built settlements on the island, many of which grew into important towns. The year 1169 saw another invasion that had severe consequences for the island. An invasion of Norman mercenaries marked the beginning of more than seven centuries of Norman and English rule in Ireland. For many Irish, potatoes were the most important food. In 1845, disaster struck: the potato blight. This disease destroyed much of the potato crop for the next few years. About a million people died of starvation or disease. Another million emigrated to escape poverty and starvation. By 1778, only five percent of the land was owned by Catholics. In 1801, the Irish parliament was abolished and Ireland became part of “the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland”. Efforts to gain home rule and improve the condition of the people went on during the 19th century. By 1900, civil war loomed. The Home Rule act was passed in 1914, which would have given Ireland some autonomy, but it was suspended when the first world war started. The Irish War of Independence began in 1919 andcontinued until 1921. In 1922, the southern 26 counties of Ireland seceded from the United Kingdom. The new country called itself the Irish Free State. Ties with Great Britain were cut in 1948. The country became known as the Republic of Ireland. The other six counties in the north of the Ireland, called Northern Ireland, remained part of the UK, which they still are today. *Irish is the "national language" according to the Constitution, but English is the dominant language. St. Patrick was a Christian missionary, bishop and a patron saint of Ireland. He is credited with having brought Christianity to Ireland in the 5th century AD. St. Patrick's Day is celebrated on March 17, the Saint's religious feast day and the anniversary of his death in the fifth century. The Irish have observed this day as a religious holiday for over 1,000 years. *Irish is known as Irish, Gaelic or Irish Gaelic in English. The official standard name in Irish is Gaeilge. *According to the 1996 census, 1.43 million people in Ireland claim to have some knowledge of Irish, 353,000 of whom speak it regularly. *There are three main dialects of Irish: Munster (An Mhumhain), Connacht (Connachta) and Ulster (Ulaidh). Bono *Irish uses the Latin alphabet, the basic Irish alphabet consists of 18 letters. Variations of a, e, i, o and u also exist. The letters j, k, q, v, w, x, y and z do not occur in native Irish words, but do appear in some English loanwords, for example jab (job) and veain (van). a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u Á á, É é, Í í, Ó ó, Ú ú Saint Patrick's Cathedral Galway City St. Patrick's Day Parade 2013 St. Patrick's Cathedral is the largest church in Ireland and is located in Dublin. The Cliffs of Moher are located at the southwestern edge of the Burren region in County Clare, Ireland. They rise 120 metres above the Atlantic Ocean at Hag's Head, and reach their maximum height of 214 metres just north of O'Brien's Tower, eight kilometres to the north. The cliffs receive almost one million visitors a year. Cliffs of Moher Newgrange is a large circular mound with a stone passageway and chambers inside. It is a prehistoric monument in County Meath, Ireland, about one kilometre north of the River Boyne. It was built about 3200 BC. Newgrange Blarney Stone The Blarney Stone is a block of bluestone built into the battlements of Blarney Castle, Blarney, about 8 kilometres from Cork, Ireland. According to legend, the stone gives the person who kisses it the gift of the gab*. This is a difficult task and in the past it caused death, before the introduction of safety measures. Nowadays there are iron bars over the hole where people could fall to make the kiss a little less dangerous. *Gift of gab is an idiomatic phrase which means the "ability to talk readily, glibly, and convincingly". Ireland has produced some of the Western world’s most acclaimed writers: James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and William Butler Yeats, to name a few. Ireland’s literature is the third oldest in all of Europe, second only to Greek and Latin. One of the characteristics of Irish literature includes an awe of nature and a love of the homeland, particularly common in its poetry. Ireland’s literature also includes a rich and imaginative folklore, with yarns about epic heroes, druids, and leprechauns. Today Neil Hannon Dolores O'Riordan Enya James Joyce Oscar Wilde George Bernard Shaw W. B. Yeats Bram Stoker Seamus Heaney 1882 - 1941 1854 - 1900 1856 - 1950 1865 - 1939 1847 - 1912 1939 - being an Irish, modernist writer who wrote in a ground-breaking style that was known both for its complexity and explicit content. publishing several acclaimed works, including The Picture of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. writing more than 60 plays during his lifetime, which earned him a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1925. being one of the greatest English-language poets of the 20th century and receiving the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. authoring the classic horror novel Dracula (1897). Best Known For... being a renowned Irish poet and professor who won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Literature. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, l, m, n,o, p, r, s, t, u á, é, í, ó, ú Best Known For... Best Known For... Best Known For... Best Known For... Best Known For... Shamrocks The shamrock refers to the young sprigs of clover. It is known as a symbol of Ireland. According to legend, St. Patrick used it as a metaphor for the Christian Trinity (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit). Thank you for listening.